Method and apparatus for the home delivery of local retail e-commerce orders

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus for empowering general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers. The method and apparatus comprises a database of patrons who register with the system to do home delivery of e-commerce orders, a database of e-commerce orders from the store, a database of buyers who place the orders, a database of delivery transaction, a database of feedback for patrons, a software application that matches acceptable orders with a patron, a dynamic pricing model that sets the delivery fee, a plurality of kiosks deployed in the retail store for patrons to select orders to deliver, a method to manage delivery transactions and compensation, a feedback system, and a service guarantee on the delivery of an order within its scheduled delivery time. The method and apparatus is then extended to different retail stores of different retail chains to provide unified home delivery service with the same pool of registered patrons.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus that enablesefficient home delivery of local retail e-commerce orders. Moreparticularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus thatempowers the general population to deliver orders from a retail store tobuyers in a more cost effective way than conventional home deliveryservices.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Although the purpose of the present invention is to provide efficienthome delivery for general local retail e-commerce orders, reviewing thecurrent state of online grocery commerce and the various home deliveryservice offerings will serve the same illustration purpose.

Online grocery services meet a number of consumer needs includingproviding products for niche markets or helping the time-starvedconsumer shop for the mundane weekly groceries. The homebound aged andhandicapped can participate in the shopping experience with the productsdelivered directly to their home. Even though there has been a greatdecline in the number of pure-play online stores, there appears to be asolid market for online shopping. The major business model that isworking today requires the support of the established brick-and-mortarsupermarkets. This model is effective as it creates distributionefficiencies and leverages reputation, which is an importantconsideration for consumers in light of the perishable nature of manygrocery products.

Today, online grocery services are legitimate businesses fulfillingabout 1 percent of the nation's $570 billion grocery bill. Business isexpected to triple by 2008, according to Jupiter Research.

However the vast majority of grocery sales are made via in-personshopping at the local stores. Some of the limiting factors that preventcustomers from doing online grocery shopping with their local storeinclude:

-   -   1. Lack of home delivery service    -   2. High cost of handling and delivery fee

Currently there are no nationwide online grocery services with homedelivery. A few brick-and-mortar supermarkets, such as Safeway andAlbertsons, are providing services in certain metropolitan areas. Anumber of pure-play online groceries serve their demographic areas.

To evaluate the high cost of grocery home delivery service, let's take alook at the offering by grocery chain Safeway as of November 2005.Safeway (www.safeway.com) provides a delivery service with a cost of$7.95 for a four-hour delivery window and $9.95 for a two-hour window.The delivery fee is relatively high compare to the typical dollar amountof the order. The invention presented here will substantially lower thecost of the delivery service and makes it more appealing for the masspopulation to do online grocery shopping and general local retail onlineshopping.

SUMMERY OF THE INVENTION

It is noted that, a retail store typically serves the surroundingneighborhood. Therefore the likelihood of multiple customers takingsimilar routes to the store is high. It is conceivable that for theshopper that does in-person shopping in the retail store, it is likelythat there exist other orders placed via internet or telephone whosedelivery route would come very close to the shopper's route from theretail store to his/her home. Therefore it is a cost effective way forthe shopper that does in-person shopping in the store to deliver thoseorders that would take similar route to delivery. Hence the definitions:

Definition List 1

Term: Buyer

Definition: A customer who orders goods from a retail store via internetor telephone. A Buyer does not travel to the retail store.

Term: Patron

Definition: A person who delivers acceptable orders from the retailstore to buyers residing within an acceptable deviation from thepatron's original route and receives compensation accordingly. A patrontravels to the retail store.

Term: Route

Definition: The path a person takes from one location to another by somemeans of transportation.

Term: Patron's Original Route

Definition: The route a patron would have taken if the patron did notperform the delivery. By default it starts from the retail store andends with patron's home address.

Term: Acceptable Delivery

Definition: A delivery of an order that a patron deems “acceptable”. Adelivery is considered acceptable if the order to be delivered isacceptable, and the deviation from the original route required to makethe delivery is also acceptable.

Term: Acceptable Delivery Criteria

Definition: A set of criteria that must be met for a delivery to beconsidered acceptable. Acceptable delivery criteria delivery includesacceptable deviation criteria and acceptable order criteria.

Term: Deviation from Patron's Original Route

Definition: A route whereby the patron leaves the path defined by thepatron's original route to reach an alternate destination or set ofdestinations, arrives at that destination or set of destinations insequence, and then rejoins the path defined by patron's original route.

Term: Acceptable Deviation from Patron's Original Route

Definition: A deviation from patron's original route that a patron deems“acceptable”. Acceptability of a deviation from an original route isdetermined by a set of acceptable deviation criteria imposed by thepatron.

Term: Acceptable Deviation Criteria

Definition: A set of criteria that must be met for a deviation frompatron's original route to be considered acceptable. Example criteriacould be that the additional distance of travel required by thedeviation be less than 1 mile, or the additional time of travel requiredby the deviation be less than 5 minutes.

Term: Acceptable Order

Definition: An order that a patron deems “acceptable” to deliver, nottaking into account the deviation from the patron's original route thatwill be needed to deliver the order. Acceptability of an order isdetermined by a set of acceptable order criteria imposed by the patron.

Term: Acceptable Order Criteria

Definition: A set of criteria that must be met for an order to beacceptable. Example criteria could be that the total weight of the goodsin the order be less than 20 pounds, or the total number of bags in theorder be less than 3.

Term: Acceptable Patron

Definition: A patron that a buyer deems an “acceptable” choice todeliver the buyer's pending order to the buyer's home or other specifieddestination. Acceptability of a patron is determined by a set ofacceptable patron criteria imposed by the buyer.

Term: Acceptable Patron Criteria

Definition: A set of criteria that must be met for a patron to beacceptable. Example criteria could be that the number of deliveriesperformed by the patron in the past year be more than 10 or the numberof positive feedbacks of the patron be more than 5.

Term: Attended Delivery

Definition: A delivery in which the buyer will be personally at home toaccept the order.

Term: Unattended Delivery

Definition: A delivery in which the buyer is not at home to accept thedelivery and thus the delivered goods must be left at the buyer's homeunattended.

Term: Scheduled Delivery Time

Definition: The period of time a buyer specifies to have the orderdelivered. Scheduled delivery times are composed of three discrete timeperiods: the “initial hours”, the “urgent” hours and the “criticalhours”. The exact duration or percentage of the periods may vary in realapplication.

Term: Initial Hours

Definition: The first period of the scheduled delivery time.

Term: Urgent Hours

Definition: The second period of the scheduled delivery time.

Term: Critical Hours

Definition: The third period of the scheduled delivery time.

Term: Cost of Travel

Definition: The cost incurred by driving a vehicle, including the costof fuel and oil, vehicle deprecation, vehicle insurance andregistration, and travel time

Term: Total Travel Cost of a Delivery

Definition: The cost of total travel for a patron to make in order todeliver orders to buyers.

Term: True Travel Cost of a Delivery

Definition: The cost of travel for a patron to deliver orders to buyers,excluding the cost of travel of the patron's original route. The truetravel cost is the cost of travel of the deviations from patron'soriginal route. It is the difference of total travel cost and the costof travel of the patron's original route.

Term: iDeliver

Definition: A term that describes the activities performed by a patronwho deliver acceptable orders from the retail store to buyers residingwithin an acceptable deviation from the patron's original route.

Term: iDeliver Service

Definition: A service that empowers a patron to deliver orders tobuyers. It includes but is not limited to registering of a patron;providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service to buyer uponreceiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer; matching pending orderswith patron's acceptable delivery criteria; managing deliverytransaction and compensation; providing means for buyer to leavefeedback on patron and making use of said feedback and providing meansfor service guarantee on delivery of order within scheduled deliverytime.

Term: Store Delivery

Definition: A delivery performed by in-store delivery team instead of apatron.

Term: iDeliver System

Definition: The method and apparatus for iDeliver service

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide theiDeliver system, a home delivery collaboration system which empowers apatron to deliver acceptable orders from the retail store todestinations that are within an acceptable deviation from patron'soriginal route.

A prerequisite of the iDeliver system is the existence of an e-commerceordering system from the retail store. Buyers do not need to travel tothe store to purchase the goods. Instead buyers can place order via theInternet or telephone and have the order delivered to the home.

Below is a brief description of the iDeliver system and its usefulness.A detailed description of the iDeliver system is presented together witha description of the drawing afterward.

A buyer first places an online order with the retail store's orderingsystem. The retail store packages the order. In parallel the orderinformation is sent to the iDeliver system. As soon as the order hasbeen packaged, the iDeliver system makes the order available fordelivery from the in-store iDeliver kiosks. A patron then arrives at theretail stores, fulfills his/her own shopping needs, and then throughinteraction with an in-store iDeliver kiosk selects the orders todeliver. The patron then delivers the order, thus closing thetransaction.

One of key function of the iDeliver system is to match pending ordersfrom buyers to a patron who will deliver those orders. The system willfirst find all of the acceptable orders for which an acceptabledeviation from the patron's original route exists to get to the deliverylocation of that individual order. The patron will then choose which ofthese matching orders to deliver, after which the iDeliver system willcalculate the “best” deviation from the original route the patron couldtake to reach all of the destinations. Here “best” refers to a deviationthat best fits the acceptable deviation criteria established by thepatron. For example if the patron has set one criterion to be that anydestination must be within a three-mile radius of some point on his/heroriginal route, the iDeliver system will construct deviations that nevergo beyond three miles of the patron's original route and come as closeto the original route as possible.

If no such deviation exists, the patron will be notified as such andwill be given the opportunity to override his/her acceptable deviationcriteria and accept the “best” deviation found (which may not entirelysatisfy one or all of the criteria), or refine his/her selections andallow the iDeliver system to calculate a new deviation. Every time thesystem makes a calculation, the patron will be able to browse throughthe five best deviations found and choose which deviation to use. Once adeviation has been chosen, the patron will be provided writteninstructions and a map to guide them through the delivery. Once thedelivery is completed, patron receives compensation accordingly.

The advantage of the iDeliver service over conventional home deliveryservices is that the iDeliver service provides a true travel cost thatis lower than the travel cost in conventional delivery services. Thetotal travel cost for the patron to perform the delivery is the sum ofthe following:

-   -   1. the cost of travel of patron's original route    -   2. true travel cost, which is the cost of travel of the        deviations from the patron's original route

The iDeliver service is more efficient because item one above is a sunkcost that has been incurred and will not be recovered due to the plannedoriginal route. So for the patron to delivery the order, item two aboveis his/her true travel cost, which is less than the total travel costrequired by the conventional delivery service.

A lower true travel cost per delivery allows the delivery fee to bereduced. This presents an advantage for buyers. Customers who arepressed for time or who tend to avoid in-person shopping will enjoy theconvenience of online shopping and a low delivery fee.

A lower delivery fee is also an advantage for the retail store. It canincrease online sales and make a retail store more efficient by lettingit serve a larger neighborhood, as some of the customers do not need totravel to the store. Also, the availability of a low-cost deliveryservice is a tremendous competitive advantage in the retail industry.

For the patrons, there is relatively small effort to make the deliveryand receive compensation if his/her acceptable deviation criteria aresufficiently restrictive. Therefore this delivery method is attractivefor the general population to participate as patrons.

One aspect of the present invention is to provide a service guarantee ondelivering the order within the scheduled delivery time. The scheduleddelivery time are composed of three discrete time periods: the “initialhours”, the “urgent” hours and the “critical hours”. The iDeliver systemincludes several approaches to optimize the probability of an orderbeing delivered by a patron during the initial hours and urgent hours.The iDeliver system also includes an in-store delivery team to deliverorders that reach the critical hours without having been delivered.

The first approach is to limit iDeliver service to the time when thestore has the most number of customers. Usually this would be on aweekend or some particular hours during the weekdays. Since the numberof customers is high at these times, the availability of patrons is highand so most of the orders can be delivered by patrons. The secondapproach is to limit iDeliver service to an area that has a highpopulation density. Having a densely populated neighborhood increase thelikelihood of matching the orders to be delivered to this area with thepatrons who have restrictive delivery criteria.

If for whatever reason a certain order reaches the urgent hours withoutdelivery, the third approach is to dynamically offer an increaseddelivery compensation for the delivery of this order. An increase ofcompensation may be sufficient to convince patrons to relax theiracceptable delivery criteria and accept a wider range of orders todeliver.

If for whatever reason a certain order reaches the critical hourswithout delivery, the iDeliver system will employ the in-store deliveryteam for delivery. Thus an order is guaranteed to be delivered withinthe scheduled delivery time.

It must be noted that the exact duration or percentage of initial hours,urgent hours and critical hours may vary in real applications.

Another aspect of the present invention is that the iDeliver service canbe shared amongst different retail chains at the same time. The iDeliversystem can share the same pool of patrons among different retail chains.Once a patron registers with the iDeliver system, he/she can performdeliveries for different retail stores of different retail chains wherethe iDeliver service is available.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing features and other aspects of the present application areexplained in the following description taken in connection with theaccompanying drawings wherein:

1. FIG. 1 is an exemplary component diagram of the iDeliver system;

2. FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment showing the high-level view of thecomplete iDeliver service process;

3. FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary procedure of a buyer's interactionwith the iDeliver system while making an online order;

4. FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary procedure a prospective patron musttake in order to obtain an iDeliver account;

5. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary procedure taken by the iDeliverServer during the three different stages of the scheduled delivery timeframe;

6. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary procedure of a patron's interactionwith the iDeliver system;

7. FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a patron's original route betweenthe retail store and the patron's final destination;

8. FIG. 8 illustrates the efficiency of iDeliver by showing whichportions of a route calculated by the iDeliver Server would contributeto the true cost of the route; and

9. FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary procedure taken by the patron andiDeliver system during a delivery.

The figures are understood to provide representative illustration of theinvention and are not limiting in their content. The leading referencenumeral(s) indicates the first figure in which that reference number isintroduced.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 is an exemplary component diagram of the iDeliver system 100. TheiDeliver system 100 connects to the order system 115 of the retailstore, and to a buyer or patron's home computer 120 through a wide areanetwork (WAN) 105, such as the Internet. An iDeliver user interface isintegrated into the existing ordering interface (website) provided bythe ordering system 115, thereby giving a buyer or patron access to theiDeliver service.

The iDeliver system 100 is composed of the iDeliver Server 125, an orderdatabase 130, a buyer database 135, transaction database 140, a feedbackdatabase 145, a patron database 150, a set of in-store iDeliver kiosks155, employee iDeliver client computer 160, the patrons 170, and thein-store delivery team 165. The iDeliver server 125, order database 130,buyer database 135, patron database 150, transaction database 140,feedback database 145, in-store iDeliver kiosks 155, and employeeiDeliver client 160 are connected through a local area network (LAN)110.

The iDeliver server 125 stores data in and retrieves data from the fivedatabases, and is responsible for all manipulation of this data. Ordersplaced through the ordering system 115 of the retail store are receivedby the iDeliver server 125 and are then stored in the order database130. Patron information is stored in the patron database 150 when apatron creates a new iDeliver account. Buyer information is stored inthe buyer database 135 when a buyer chooses to have an order deliveredthrough the iDeliver service. Transactions are entered into thetransaction database 140 for each order delivered by the patron. TheiDeliver Server 125 and the kiosks 155 conform to a client-server model.All data retrieval, data input and calculations are performed by theiDeliver Server 125, while the kiosks 155 are only responsible fordisplaying the data and receiving user input from the patrons. Adescription of a patron's interaction with a kiosk is described below.

The in-store delivery team 165 interacts with the iDeliver Serverthrough an employee iDeliver client computer 160. The iDeliver Server125 sends notifications to this client computer 160 whenever it isnecessary for the in-store delivery team 165 to deliver an order.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment showing the high-level view of thecomplete iDeliver service process. The steps are as follows: first abuyer places an online order 200 with the retail store's ordering system115 and selects to have the order delivered by the iDeliver service. Thedetails of the buyer's ordering process are discussed below. If theorder is placed successfully, the order information is sent to theiDeliver Server 125 for processing. A transaction record is then createdin transaction database to track the status of order. The iDeliverServer 125 enters the order information into the order database, andupdates the buyer database with the buyer information. In thetransaction database, the order is marked as “waiting for packaging” toindicate that it requires packaging before being ready for delivery. TheiDeliver Server 125 then notifies the in-store iDeliver client that anew order is required to be packaged. The retail store's packagingemployees package the order 220, and then notify the iDeliver Server 125that the packaging step is done and thus the order is ready to bedelivered. With this information, the iDeliver Server 125 updates thetransaction database and marks the order as “packaged”. At this point,no action is taken by the iDeliver Server 125 with respect to this orderuntil the order information is needed at one of the iDeliver kiosks, orthe scheduled delivery time has nearly elapsed.

In the latter case, the iDeliver Server 125, in order to guarantee thedelivery service, will notify the in-store delivery team that it willneed to deliver the order. Accordingly the iDeliver Server 125 marks theorder as “store delivery”. The heuristic used to determine when such acourse of action would be necessary is described below.

In the former case, a patron arrives at the retail store 210, fulfillshis/her own shopping needs 230, and approaches an iDeliver kiosk withthe intention of participating in the iDeliver program 240. If thepatron does not yet have an iDeliver account, he/she can create a newone through the user interface provided by the iDeliver kiosk. Thedetails of creating a new iDeliver account are discussed below.Otherwise if the patron already has an account he/she proceeds to log inwith his/her existing credentials. The kiosk sends the iDeliver Server125 the patron's log-in information and the iDeliver Server 125 usesthis information look up the patron's information from the patrondatabase. With the patron's acceptable delivery criteria, the iDeliverServer 125 determines if the order is a match. If it is not a match thenno information about the order is sent to the kiosk and the orderremains with the “packaged” status. Otherwise the iDeliver Server 125sends the order information to the iDeliver kiosk for the patron toview. The patron now makes a decision whether or not to deliver saidorder. If not, then the order is handled as it was in case it did notmatch the patron's criteria. Otherwise the kiosk notifies the iDeliverServer 125 that the patron would like to deliver the order. The iDeliverServer 125 marks the order as “selected by patron to deliver” to preventany other patrons from choosing to deliver this same order. Asynchronization method will be used to ensure that two different patronsdo not attempt to choose the same order at the same time from twodifferent kiosks.

Once the patron has finished choosing which orders to deliver, he/sheproceeds to the retail store's loading area with the order details. Theretail store's employees load the patron's vehicle with the packagedorders, and the patron is then ready to begin the delivery process 250,described in detail below. The iDeliver process comes to a completiononce the buyer receives the order 260. Accordingly the order will bemarked as “delivered” upon completion of delivery.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary procedure of a buyer's interaction withthe iDeliver system while making an online order. The buyer browses theretail store's online shopping site 300 and places an order for goods305 as defined by the retail store's existing online ordering method.The information captured for the order 310 includes the buyer's name andaddress, as well as a listing of the items the buyer wishes to purchase.The buyer's delivery address is sent to the iDeliver Server so that theiDeliver Server can determine if the iDeliver service can be providedfor this buyer 315. One possible reason that the service may not beavailable to the buyer would be if the buyer lived too far away from theretail store. In this case the buyer would only have the choice of usingthe retail store's prevailing delivery service, and no more interactionwith the iDeliver Server would take place. Otherwise the buyer will begiven the choice between using the iDeliver service or the prevailingservice. If the buyer chooses to use the iDeliver service 320, he/shewill be asked to accept the iDeliver service agreement 330, stating thatthe buyer will not hold the retail store or the iDeliver systemresponsible for any action or inaction, either intentional orunintentional, on the part of the buyer or patron. If the buyer choosesnot to accept the service agreement, he/she will be notified that theiDeliver service is not available and no more interaction with theiDeliver server will take place. Otherwise the buyer will be showndetails of the iDeliver service's availability in his/her area,including which delivery time frames are available. With thisinformation the buyer specifies his/her delivery preferences 340: a timeframe in which he/she would like to have the order delivered, if thedelivery will be attended or unattended, and a set of acceptable patroncriteria that a patron must meet in order to be able to deliver theorder. A typical time frame might be the four hours between one and fivePM. An attended delivery is a delivery in which the buyer will bepersonally at home to accept the order. And unattended delivery is adelivery in which the buyer is not at home to accept the delivery, andthus the delivered goods must be left at the buyer's home unattended. Ifthe delivery is to be an unattended delivery, then the buyer must alsoprovide written instructions for where the patron should leave theorder.

With these pieces of information the iDeliver system then calculates acost for the delivery. The factors used to determine this cost includehow restrictive the buyer's patron criteria are, as well as howrestrictive the delivery time frame is. The buyer will then be given thechance to accept or reject 350 the calculated delivery price. Ifrejected, the buyer is notified that the iDeliver service is notavailable and no more interaction with the iDeliver server will takeplace. If the price is accepted, both the buyer's information and theorder information are sent to the iDeliver Server 355. The iDeliverServer enters these two pieces of information into the buyer databaseand order database, respectively, and charges the buyer the amount ofthe order and the delivery. Once this is completed the iDeliver Serversends a confirmation email 360 to the buyer with the details of theorder. If the type of delivery chosen is an attended delivery 365, thebuyer is also given a secret confirmation code 370 that will later beused to complete the transaction with the patron upon delivery.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary procedure a prospective patron must takein order to obtain an iDeliver account. The first step 400 involvesproviding personally identifying information that the iDeliver Serverwill store in the patron database. This includes a social securitynumber, which is a legal necessity to compensate the patron, in additionto name, address, and credit information 405. During the second step 410the patron establishes his/her set of acceptable order criteria andacceptable deviation criteria 415 that will help the iDeliver systemmatch the patron with orders. In the third step 420, the patron is askedto accept the iDeliver service agreement 425, stating that the buyerwill not hold the retail store or the iDeliver system responsible forany action or inaction, either intentional or unintentional, on the partof the buyer or patron. If the patron accepts the agreement, then theiDeliver system performs some background checks 430 on the prospectivepatron to ensure that he/she is legally able to work 433 and can thusparticipate in the iDeliver program and receive compensation. This mayinclude but is not limited to checking the patron's age and citizenshipstatus to make sure both meet the federal and state requirements toparticipate in the iDeliver program. If the iDeliver system determinesthat the prospective patron cannot legally participate, then it willnotify the patron as such and the patron application will be rejected435. Otherwise the patron's application is accepted 440. The patron canthen choose a username and password that can be used to log into theiDeliver kiosks during subsequent visits to the retail store, or fromthe retail store's online ordering system. The kiosk will then produce amembership card for the new patron. This card can be used in the kiosk'scard swiper to expedite the logon process.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary procedure taken by the iDeliver Serverduring the three different stages of the scheduled delivery time frame500. The iDeliver Server behaves differently depending on the stage thatthe order is in. These differences in behavior are meant to ensure thatthe order will be delivered by the end of the scheduled delivery timeframe so as to uphold iDeliver system's guarantee of service. Moreoverthe different behaviors are established in such a way as to maximize theprobability that it will be a patron who performs the delivery of theorder instead of the in-store delivery team. The reason for this is adirect result of one of iDeliver system's primary objectives—to reducethe total cost of delivery. As explained below, the cost of delivery isreduced significantly if performed by the patron, whereas a deliveryperformed by the in-store delivery team incurs just as much of a cost asthe prevailing delivery service. The heuristics used to achieve this arethus described.

First, as described above, the buyer places an order 505 and chooses theiDeliver service for delivery. The iDeliver system processes the order510, the order is packaged 515, and then the order is marked as ready todeliver. At this time the order enters the first of three stages—the theinitial hours 520—comprising the scheduled delivery time frame. Duringthis first stage, the iDeliver Server will offer the patron a basedelivery compensation 525 for delivering the order. If this base priceis not enough incentive for the patron to choose the order and thepatron rejects the order, then the order returns to the pool ofundelivered orders where it can be viewed and perhaps selected byanother patron who will accept the base price as compensation. Otherwiseif the patron chooses to accept this compensation 530, then the patronis notified of the time he/she has remaining to deliver the order andcan begin the delivery process 535. Upon delivery, the transaction iscompleted 540.

If the order has not been delivered by a patron by the time the initialhours have elapsed, then the order enters the second stage 545 of thescheduled time frame—the urgent hours. During this stage, the iDeliverServer will increase the compensation 550 a patron would receive todeliver the order, thereby increasing the likelihood that a patron willbe willing to deliver the order. At this point the method from the firststage applies: if the increased price is still not enough incentive forthe patron to choose the order and the patron rejects the order, thenthe order returns to the pool of undelivered orders where it can beviewed and perhaps selected by another patron who will accept theincreased price as compensation. Otherwise if the patron chooses toaccept this compensation 555, then the patron is notified of the timehe/she has remaining to deliver the order and can begin the deliveryprocess 560. Upon delivery, the transaction is completed 565.

If the order still has not been delivered by the time the urgent hourshave elapsed, then it enters the third and final stage 570 in thescheduled time frame—the critical hours. Since upholding the guaranteeof service is paramount, the iDeliver Server cannot risk waiting anymorefor a patron to accept the order, because there is so little time leftin the scheduled delivery time frame. Thus once the order reaches thisstage the iDeliver Server will instruct the retail store's delivery teamto deliver the order 575, and the order will no longer be made availablefor patrons to deliver. Upon delivery, the transaction is completed 580.

It is not discussed here what percentages of the total scheduleddelivery time frame each stage should use. The choice of percentagesused that will yield the highest probability that a patron will deliverthe order instead of the in-store delivery team depends on a variety offactors including, but no limited to, the time of day in which thedelivery time frame takes place, the length of the delivery time frame,and the number of patrons that would find the order acceptable. Likewisethe amount by which the base compensation should be raised during theurgent hours is not discussed here as the amount chosen would depend onequally as many factors.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary procedure of a patron's interaction withthe iDeliver system, through either a home computer or an iDeliver kioskat the retail store.

The steps taken during the interaction are as follows: In the first step600, the patron logs into the system by either providing a username andpassword (from home computer or kiosk) or swiping his/her membershipcard through the card reader (kiosk only). Once the patron successfullylogs in, he/she will be provided with a set of options includingchanging his/her iDeliver account settings and setting up a newdelivery.

The account settings that a patron can alter during a session includehis/her address, credit information, and set of acceptable ordercriteria and deviation criteria. The iDeliver Server applies any suchchanges immediately by updating the relevant data in the patrondatabase.

Alternatively if the patron chooses to schedule a new delivery, thesteps taken are as follows. First the patron enters the address 605 ofhis/her final destination to be reached after performing all of thedeliveries. This destination could be the patron's home or any otherdestination of the patron's choice, as long as the destination is withina defined distance from the retail store. By default the iDeliver systemwill assume the patron's final destination is home and thus thisdestination will be the default destination displayed.

Once the patron has selected a destination, the iDeliver Serverretrieves all of the patron's acceptable order criteria and deviationcriteria 610, as well as all of the pending orders 615 that currentlyexist in their initial or urgent hours of their respective delivery timeframes. At this time the iDeliver Server applies the filters against allpending orders, with the final destination as an input parameter, tofind those orders which match the acceptable order criteria andacceptable deviation criteria imposed by the patron. If no such ordersexist 625, then the patron can either exit his/her session 630altogether, or optionally modify his/her delivery criteria 635 to makethem less constrictive and then restart the process.

If matching orders are found, these orders are displayed to the patron640 on a map, each order represented as a large dot positionedaccurately at the location where the order should be delivered.Additionally the iDeliver system will place two more dots on the map,one representing the retail store and the other representing thepatron's final destination as entered from the previous step, and theServer will plot the patron's original route between these two endpointswith a solid line easily distinguishable from the other map components.The map will contain streets and street names, and will be scaled to thelargest scale possible that still allows for enough room to display allof the aforementioned dots comfortably on the screen.

Beside each dot representing an order will be three buttons that willallow the patron to perform operations on the order. The patron canselect the order with a “select” button, deselect a previously selectedorder with a “deselect” button, and view the details of the order with a“details” button. Selecting an order will add the order to the list oforders that the patron wishes to deliver, while deselecting an orderwill remove the order from that list. The user interface can providevisual feedback to help the patron distinguish between selected andunselected orders by altering the color of the respective dots. Forexample selected orders could be displayed in green while unselectedorders could be displayed in red. The details option will bring up asmall text window containing order information such as the deliveryaddress, the contents and total value of the order, and whether or notthe delivery is to be attended or not. The details window will also showthe compensation the patron would receive if he/she decided to deliverthe order.

Once the patron is satisfied with his/her selection of orders, he/shewill have the option of finalizing the selection by clicking a “done”button. This will remove all of the unselected orders from the map. Atthis point the iDeliver Server will calculate a route that visits eachof the order locations and finishes at the patron's final destination.This route will be plotted on the map in a solid line of a color otherthan that used to plot the original route, so that the patron can easilydistinguish between the two routes. The Server will print outinformation about the route including an estimate of the additional timeand distance that will be required to take the route.

If for some reason the patron is unsatisfied with all or any part of thegenerated route, he/she will be able to specify additional criteria (orrelax existing criteria) on-the-fly to alter the iDeliver Server'smethod of generating the route. The patron can then have the iDeliverServer calculate a new route with the new set of criteria.

Once the patron has chosen a route to take 645, the iDeliver system willprint out the map 650 generated from the previous step, as well as a setof written directions to complement the map. At this time the patron hascompleted scheduling a delivery and can proceed to the retail store'sloading area to pick up the orders. Once the patron confirm his/herselection of orders to deliver, the retail store's employees arenotified by the iDeliver Server to collect the packaged orders inpreparation to give them to the patron. Upon arriving at the loadingarea, the patron shows the employees some form of identification thatcan verify his/her identity and the employees then load the orders intothe patron's vehicle 655. To make patron liable for completing thedelivery, an exemplary embodiment is to charge patron's account with anamount equal to the total value of the orders and credit the same amountback to patron's account upon completion of delivery. Another exemplaryembodiment is to assume delivery will be successfully completed andcharge patron's account only when there is a problem reported from buyerabout the delivery. A dispute process can be employed to resolve theissue properly

With the orders loaded for delivery, the patron is then ready to performthe delivery 660.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of a patron's original route 700 betweenthe retail store 710 and the patron's final destination 720. During thedelivery scheduling process, the iDeliver system calculates patron'soriginal route based on the location of the retail store and thelocation of the patron's final destination. This is the default originalroute that will initially be shown on the map of orders, unless thepatron has explicitly specified the exact components of the originalroute in his/her account settings.

FIG. 8 illustrates the efficiency of iDeliver by showing which portionsof a route calculated by the iDeliver Server would contribute to thetrue cost of the route. The calculated route 830 in this figure allowsthe patron to delivery three orders A, B and C. It is assumed that thecost of the original route 800 the patron would take from the retailstore 810 and the final destination 820 is a sunk cost; because it isthe route the patron would take regardless of his/her participation inthe iDeliver system. Thus it is reasonable to assume that the true costof delivering the three orders is only incurred by the small deviationsthe patron must take from the original route in order to reach the threeintermediate destinations. These deviations are encapsulated by thethree circles on the map 840. The cost incurred by these smalldeviations will be far less than the cost of the entire route, thisshowing how the iDeliver system greatly reduces the delivery cost.

Of course not all deviations generated by the iDeliver Server would beas simple as the deviations shown in the figure, where the routedeviates from and returns to a route at just a single point. Instead, adeviation could leave the original route at some point, take the patronalong a different route to deliver one or more orders, and then rejointhe original route at a different point than the departure. In thiscase, the true cost of the deviation becomes the cost incurred by thedeviation minus the sunk cost of travel between the two endpoints of thedeviation.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary procedure taken by the patron andiDeliver system during a delivery. Once the patron picks up the ordersfrom the loading area 900 of the retail store, the iDeliver Servercreates a new transaction 905 in the transaction database for each orderand charges the total value of the orders to the patron's account. Withthe help of the map and written directions, the patron proceeds to thefirst destination to drop off the first order 910. Depending on whetherthe delivery is attended or unattended 915, different actions are takenby the patron and the iDeliver system.

If the delivery is an attended delivery, the patron confronts the buyerwith the order. The buyer quickly inspects the order to verify that allof the expected contents are present and are undamaged. If some of theitems are missing or are damaged, then a complaint can be filed with theiDeliver service and a dispute resolution process can be instituted.Otherwise, upon receipt of the order, the buyer gives the patron thesecret confirmation code 920 that he/she received when originallyplacing the order. The patron uses this code as proof that the deliverywas made successfully. Through an email, a mobile phone text message, orthe retail store's online ordering system, the patron sends in theconfirmation code to the iDeliver Server 925. With this confirmation theiDeliver Server credits the patron's account with the value of the orderas well as the compensation for that order 930. This signifies the endof the transaction, and the order status in the transaction database isupdated to “delivered”.

If the delivery is an unattended delivery, the patron leaves the orderat the location specified by the buyer during the ordering process. Thepatron then submits the order ID to the iDeliver Server to indicate thatthe order has been successfully delivered 935. With this confirmationthe iDeliver Server credits the patron's account with the value of theorder as well as the compensation for that order 930. When the buyerreturns home, he/she verifies the contents of the order and if anythingis missing or damaged, files a complaint with the iDeliver Server, atwhich point a dispute resolution process can be instituted. Thissignifies the end of the transaction, and the order status in thetransaction database is updated to “delivered”.

Once the transaction has come to a completion, the buyer can optionallylog into the iDeliver system and leave feedback for the patron 940 toreflect the quality of the delivery. The iDeliver system takes thisfeedback and stores it in the feedback database 945. This feedback canlater be used to determine if the patron meets the acceptable patroncriteria of another buyer.

Although illustrative embodiments and various modifications thereof havebeen described in detail herein with reference to the accompanyingdrawings, one skilled in the art will appreciate that the presentapplication need not be limited to these precise embodiments and thedescribed modifications, and that various changes and furthermodifications may be effected therein without departing from the scopeor spirit of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Forinstance, a patron may be compensated by receiving store credit or maychoose to perform the service on behalf of his/her designated charityrather than receive direct monetary payment; a patron may select ordersto deliver via a computer at home rather than doing so in-store via aniDeliver kiosk; a patron may be notified of available orders that matchhis/her delivery criteria when he/she is checking out; the userinterface and program which enables a patron to select orders to delivermay be integrated into store's existing self-help check-out kiosksinstead necessitating a separate terminal; a buyer may also register asa patron so as to perform deliveries on some days and receive deliverieson others; a buyer may be notified of available orders that matchhis/her delivery criteria when he/she places an order online if thebuyer has registered as a patron. Furthermore, other strategies can bedeployed to optimize the probability of an order being delivered by apatron within the first two stages of a scheduled delivery time, such asgiving an incentive to the patrons who select orders to delivery via acomputer at home ahead of a scheduled delivery time.

In addition, although the above-described system and method of thepresent application has been described in the exemplary context ofgrocery shopping, it can be appreciated that the system and method ofthe present invention can be applied to any type of retail store such asdepartment store, warehouse, specialty store, etc. Furthermore, thereexists multiple possible embodiments of a patron; a patron may choose toperform deliveries on the way from work to home without doing anyshopping; a patron who has no pre-defined original route may deliver theorders because the compensation alone is sufficiently attractive; as anextreme, a patron may rely on participation in the iDeliver program as asignificant source of income and deliver orders on a daily or evenhourly basis.

REFERENCE

List of references:

1. Map from http://www.ee.qub.ac.uk/control/isac_hpage/map/2dmap.gif

2. Mike Kempiak & Mark A. Fox, 2002, “Online Grocery Shopping: ConsumerMotives, Concerns, and Business Models”http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_(—)9/kempiak/ Jean Chatzky,“Attention! Online grocery-shopping is back”, 2005,http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7714118/

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of empowering the general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers, the method comprising: registering of a patron; providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service to buyer upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer; matching pending orders with patron's acceptable delivery criteria; managing delivery transaction and compensation; providing means for buyer to leave feedback on patron and making use of said feedback; and providing means for service guarantee on delivery of order within scheduled delivery time.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein registering of patron comprises the steps of: providing user interface to allow patron to create account by choosing user name and password; providing user interface to patron to collect driver license number or social security number for labor legality in accordance with federal and local state law; providing user interface to allow patron to specify acceptable delivery criteria; presenting iDeliver service agreement which states “While using iDeliver service, you will not hold iDeliver system responsible for the action or inaction of the buyers.” to patron and collecting patron's acknowledgement; persisting the above input information entered by patron in database; and upon verification of patron's work status in accordance with federal and state law, creating patron's membership and mailing membership card to patron.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the acceptable delivery criteria includes acceptable deviation criteria and acceptable order criteria.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the acceptable deviation criteria further includes: the additional distance of travel required by the deviation is less than a preset limit; the additional time of travel required by the deviation is less than a preset limit.
 5. The method of claim 3 wherein the acceptable order criteria further includes: the total weight of the goods in the order is less than a preset limit; and the total number of bags of the order is less than a preset limit.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer comprises the steps of: providing user interface to buyer the to show whether iDeliver service is available to buyer's address; if iDeliver service is not available said method ends here; If iDeliver service is available then presenting iDeliver service agreement which states “While using iDeliver service, you will not hold iDeliver system responsible for the action or inaction of buyers delivery service providers.” to buyer and collecting buyer's acknowledgement; providing user interface to buyer to show the availability of schedule delivery times of iDeliver service; providing user interface to allow buyer to select type of delivery (attended or unattended), schedule delivery time and acceptable patron criteria; calculating the delivery fee based on scheduled delivery time and buyer-specified patron criteria; if it is a attended delivery, generating a secret code and sending the code to buyer; sending a order confirmation to buyer; and persisting the above information entered by buyer in database.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein the acceptable patron criteria includes: the number of deliveries performed by the patron in the past year is more than a preset limit; and the number of positive feedback of the patron is more than a preset limit.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein matching pending orders with patrons' acceptable delivery criteria comprises the steps of: providing user interface to allow patron to login by using user name and password or by swiping of membership card; retrieving patron's acceptable delivery criteria; retrieving all pending orders that are scheduled for delivery by patrons from current time to a preset time limit; applying patron's delivery criteria to filter said orders in step c; providing user interface to present the orders that satisfy patron's delivery criteria to patron; providing user interface to allow patron to accept or decline the individual order from said orders in step e; if patron wish to modify acceptable delivery criteria then providing user interface to allow patron to do so and go to step c; providing user interface to collect the orders accepted by patron to deliver; and printing out the driving directions, map and estimated travel time.
 9. The method of claim 1 wherein managing delivery transaction and compensation comprises the steps of: creating a record in transaction database with a “waiting for packaging” status upon receiving of e-commerce order; updating the order status to “packaged” upon completion of order packaging; updating the order status to “selected by patron to deliver” upon patron's confirmation; updating the order status to “store delivery” the order is carried out as store delivery; charging the amount of the order to patron's account upon patron's picking up of order to deliver; instructing patron to request the secret code from buyer if the delivery is attended upon patron's arrival at delivery address; receiving order identification from patron receiving said secret code if the delivery is attended; crediting the amount of the order to patron's account; crediting the delivery fee to patron's account; updating the order status to “delivered” and closing the transaction; and sending reminder to buyer to leave feedback for patron for this delivery.
 10. The method of claim 1 wherein providing means for buyer to leave feedback on patron and making use of said feedback includes: sending reminder to buyer to leave feedback for patron upon completion of delivery; providing buyer a option to use patron feedback information as acceptable patron criteria when scheduling iDeliver service; and updating patron feedback information in database.
 11. The method of claim 1 wherein providing means for service guarantee on delivery of order within scheduled delivery includes: limiting iDeliver service to buyer whose address is within a list of areas where the density of population is higher than a preset limit; limiting iDeliver service scheduled delivery times to a list of time periods when number of customers visiting a store is greater than a preset limit; increasing the delivery compensation to patron once an order reaches urgent hours; and Employing a in-store delivery team to deliver orders that reach critical hours.
 12. An e-commerce system for empowering general population to deliver e-commerce orders from retail stores to buyers, the system comprising: a client computer to present user to perform the steps of registering of a patron; a client computer to present user interface to perform the steps of providing selection and scheduling of iDeliver service to buyer upon receiving of e-commerce order placed by buyer; a plurality of in-store kiosks to present user interface to perform the steps of matching pending orders with patron's acceptable delivery criteria; a data storage medium to store order information; a data storage medium to store buyer information; a data storage medium to store patron information; a data storage medium to store transaction information; a data storage medium to store feedback information; and a plurality of server computers, coupled to said client computers, in-store kiosks and data storage mediums via a communications network, to implement the method of claim
 1. 13. A computer readable medium comprising instructions, which when executed on a processor, cause the processor to execute the steps of the method of claim
 1. 14. A method for providing the method in claim 1 to different retail chains with the same pool of patrons, the method comprising; sharing the pool of patron information among different retail chains; and allowing a patron to participate in different stores different retail chains where iDeliver service is available. 